Neutral Police in Saar Region Asked by Knox

September 26, 1934

Boston (Sep. 25)

Geoffrey G. Knox, the League of Nations High Commissioner for the Saar, has asked for a neutral gendarmerie to police the area, where the campaign for the January plebiscite has now begun, a wireless dispatch to the Christian Science Monitor reports.

The difficulties of recruiting such a force are apparent, the report adds, declaring that a special session of the Council of the League is expected to be held in November to reconsider the Saar question.

“Documents just published point seriously to danger of a ‘putsch’ by Saarlanders of the German Labor camp, and the chairman of the Plebiscite Commission, Mr. D. de Jongh, protests against German intervention.

“It appears imprudent to leave the Saar arrangements unsettled until within two months of an election which will decide its fate.

“Though there is support for the French idea of a second plebiscite at an unspecified date when European conditions have changed, thus leaving Saarlanders free to vote for the status quo now, juridical grounds for such postponement are not very sound and there is widespread apprehension that it would appear to be an irritating manoeuvre against Germany.”